Monday, April 24, 2017

Is Putin Going to Be Remembered as the Man Who Allowed Chechnya to Conquer Russia?

Paul
Goble

Staunton, April 24 -- Yuliya
Latynina says it is quite possible that “Putin will go down in history as the
man under whom Russia was conquered by Chechnya” given the Kremlin leader’s
reaction to Ramzan Kadyrov’s actions regarding LGBT people in his republic and
his threats against those who exposed his crimes (echo.msk.ru/programs/code/1967426-echo/).

For
years, many Russian and Western writers have pointed to Putin’s incredible
support for Kadyrov and tolerance for his outrageous behavior – the “disappearances”
of his opponents, the repression of his people, and his ability to act in
violation of Russian law and constitution – quite literally his “getting away
with murder” without consequences.

On
the one hand, many believe that Kadyrov is doing exactly what Putin wants,
testing the waters as it were for repressive actions elsewhere; and that may be
especially true in the current case given widespread hostility to LGBT people
elsewhere in the Russian Federation. (On that, see lenta.ru/articles/2017/04/21/yan_holland/.)

Putin can’t afford to have his
subordinates lie to him and remain unpunished. To do so not only shows the kind
of weakness that no autocrat can afford lest what one of his underlings does
spread to others and ever more of them and others too conclude that they also
can do the same thing.

But even more than that, it raises a
question that the Kremlin leader certainly doesn’t want anyone to ask: Is he
unwilling or even more is he unable to remove Kadyrov?If he is unwilling, that is an indictment of Putin’s
own viciousness; if the Kremlin leader can’t, that suggests Putin isn’t nearly
as all-powerful as he and his acolytes like to believe.

Latynina’s remark is over the top,
but Putin’s behavior in this case in particular makes her words less absurd and
easily dismissed than they would have been not long ago.And consequently, they suggest that unless
Putin acts against Kadyrov and soon, it will not only be the Chechen leader’s
career but his own that may be in jeopardy.